Will Skelton: La Rochelle have all the character to punch above their weight

“It means everything to this club, to me, to the boys. We're only a small town, you know, we're not supposed to be here,” Skelton told BT Sport.

La Rochelle Head Coach Ronan O'Gara celebrates after the game with Will Skelton. Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

If anyone embodied La Rochelle’s character and determination to fight for his club’s cause in Saturday’s engrossing Heineken Champions Cup final it was surely their giant lock Will Skelton.

And there was no-one who encapsulated what it meant to the club from France’s Atlantic coast, in a port with a slightly smaller population than Galway City better than the Australian international who has twice been the thorn in Leinster’s side on the biggest day in the European club rugby calendar.